Blue House (Isn't Really Blue) poem

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Karen Edmisten for Roundup.

It's been a bit of a rough patch with my mom having some emergency health issues...I know many in this community have experienced this with one or both parents. Thanks for all you've given me to help me through it.

Today's ArtSpeak: PICASSO features a house! That's because we've had real estate on our minds as our youngest son has been shopping for his first house. He wants a fixer-upper, and he just may have found it! Fingers crossed. 

Meanwhile, here is my poem. Picasso titled his piece "A Blue House." It is a sad house, but it isn't really blue! So that became the theme of my poem. I could have just titled it simply "Blue House," but I wanted the reader to know right up front that this isn't a sad poem. This house is more complicated than that! Thanks so much for reading.

Blue House (Isn't Really Blue)

Broken windows.
Empty rooms.
No whistling kettles.
No sweeping brooms.

Spiders spin in peace.
Birds flash in and out.
Rain dampens corners.
Lush mushrooms sprout.

Blue House shambles.
Blue House sighs.
Listens for jingle of keys.
Waits for the sun to rise.

- Irene Latham

Peace poem after Picasso's flowers

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Michelle at More Art 4 All for Roundup.

Whew, it's been a plump and juicy week full of:

1) travel (research trip with Charles for our 2027 picture book!)

2) reading and offering feedback to many wonderful and talented poets

3) book club! (We read Ava's Man by Rick Bragg. Next up: )

4) baking for the Bake Sale that accompanies our community's annual Butt Sale (that's "smoked Boston pork Butts" for the uninitiated!)

This week's ArtSpeak: PICASSO features a classic piece of Picasso's art. 

I decided to go with an acrostic, partly as a way to "put my money where my mouth is" and write against my preferences (I'm generally not a fan of the acrostic form) and also because I wanted to force myself to write very sparely on this topic (as it is easy to turn sentimental or fall back on overused language and images). 

This is where I landed. Thanks so much for reading. Wishing you a PEACEFUL Memorial Day weekend!

Peace

Praise the hopeful bouquet—

each bloom plump with rain,

ardent suns spilling brilliant

color—at once an offering

            and also a tender

embrace.

- Irene Latham

Picasso Speaks of Pigeons poem

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit dear Ramona at Pleasures from the Page for Roundup.

One of my favorite parts of this past week has been consulting with other poets about their poetry. I come away from these conversations completely inspired and grateful. And y'all, isn't it FUN to dive deep into our words and emotions?! I feel like I have made a bunch of new friends.

Also: the garden is exploding! Here's my first purple coneflower opening. It's been fun to watch it change shape each day.

Today's ArtSpeak: PICASSO features one of Picasso's paintings in the primitive style. (I know! Who knew Picasso ever painted in this style?! But yes. Yes he did.) He painted quite a few pieces featuring pigeons, so I knew this year would bring me a few pigeon poems! 

Here's "Pigeon Song," from February. And now I offer you the first poem in this series in which I've given Picasso himself a voice.

Other inspirations for this poem include Knocking on Windows by Jeannine Atkins. Jeannine's beautiful, powerful memoir-in-verse will release August 5. (More on this soon...Jeannine will be visiting Live Your Poem soon!) 

I copied many passages into my notebook, and I especially fell in love with Jeannine's final poem. It's hard sometimes to know when to get out of a story. How do you say goodbye? So that was definitely on my mind. 

Then I read "Future History of Earth's Birds" by Amie Whittemore, which was featured on poets.org poem-a-day earlier this week. In the "About the Poem" section, Amie said this: "I could envision a poem that celebrated the wild wisdom of birds while also mourning their diminishing numbers.” That statement brought to mind this painting, and off I went, in search of words! Thanks so much for reading.

Picasso Speaks of Pigeons

A thousand pigeons
once roosted here—

their cooing lullabied me
into fractured dreams.

For hours I splashed
the canvas with paint,

creating my sums
of destructions.

And now just one
remains—

one soft cooing.

Maybe it means thank you.
Maybe goodbye.

- Irene Latham

Night Fishing at Antibes poem

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Sarah Grace Tuttle for Roundup.

First and foremost: THANK YOU, poets, for your support of the Poetry & Punctuation webinar earlier this week through Inked Voices. (Isn't Brooke fabulous?) I loved our time together and appreciate the opportunity to learn with all of you! 

Also: if you have other topics you'd be interested in learning with me, would you please let me know in comments or email? irene (at) irenelatham (dot) com. Thank you!

In celebration of Mother's Day, I offer everyone a video of Great Horned owl Athena feeding her owlets. Y'all, it is the sweetest!

Today's ArtSpeak: PICASSO is after a pretty stunning and memorable piece. Watch this 8-minute video about it, and your life will be changed! 

I guess I've got fishing on my mind. Spring is a great time for it! 

And not just fishing for fish. How 'bout fishing for poems? 

I hope this poem feels relevant, whatever your metaphorical "fish." Thanks so much for reading.

Night Fishing at Antibes

and I would give you
a boat to anchor
your heart

a lantern
to illuminate
your courage

a blade to sharpen
your purpose

and a red-swirl
galaxy of gratitude

when your spear
pierces
its first fish

- Irene Latham

Mirror, Mirror on the wall poem

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Mary Lee at A(nother) Year of Reading for Roundup.

Hooray, it's May! 

I have A LOT going on this month, including traveling today to Atlanta to hang out with my good buddy Charles at Little Shop of Stories' Children's Book Festival.

 We'll be schmoozing with the other authors (Katherine Applegate! Dave Eggers!) and presenting to kids and families about If I Could Choose a Best Day. YAY!

Last call for the Poetry & Punctuation workshop through Inked Voices!

Today's ArtSpeak: PICASSO was no doubt partly shaped by a few recent things:

1. The Dangerous Old Woman: Myths and Stories of the Wise Woman Archetype audio series byClarissa Pinkola Estes (Soundstrue)

2. Beastly Beauty by Jennifer Donnelly ( a retelling of Beauty of the Beast in which the boy is the beauty and the girl is the beast!)

And...I can't title a poem "Mirror, Mirror" without thinking of Marilyn Singer and her marvelous reverso poem collections! Thanks so much for reading.

Mirror, Mirror

by Irene Latham

Mirror, Mirror on the wall,
you don’t know me at all!
My heart beats red
inside its cage,
my lungs are purple balloons.
Beneath my skin swells
an ocean of orange experience.
Even my eyes—
those soul windows—
cannot show you
my ten thousand skies
pulsing with stars, birdstorm
and great flashes of lightning.
Mirror, Mirror on the wall
you don't know me at all.